Thursday, July 29, 2010

Clarifying the Situation

On Tuesday, Sid pointed out to me that perhaps people that are reading my blog aren't aware of the fact that all of the books and authors that I've mentioned are available here at our library. I'll be more diligent in pointing this fact out in the future.
Now, on with my post...
As you've noticed, I have a rather long list of links (It's still growing). Among those links are several excellent food blogs. These are a mere fraction of food blogs that I read and enjoy. If you're a "foodie" and want to find a great source for the best food blogs on the web, give this article posted by London's Sunday Times on February 17, 2009 a perusal. These people take their food very seriously. Their choice of top food blog is also mine. Orangette is absolutely perfect. Even if you don't care for cooking, her blog is just a flat-out wonderful read. Molly Wizenberg could prove to be the M.F.K. Fisher of Generation X. As a result of her blog, Molly now has a monthly column in Bon Appetit magazine . Also, in Spring 2009, Molly's first book was published, A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table. Read reviews via goodreads here. Our library doesn't carry this book. However, I've read several terrific food books that our located in our library among the stacks (Actually- among shelves, but I'm keeping with the spirit of the name of my blog).
Former New York Times restaurant critic and editor of the now defunct Gourmet magazine (I'm still grieving over Gourmet's harsh ending), Ruth Reichl has written several books about her life and it's relationship to food. Ruth's complete frankness and humor are what make her books so darn enjoyable. Tender at the Bone: Growing up at the Table is where Ruth's journey begins. Her mother's cooking is dubious, at best. I have to admit, Ms. Reichl's mother's kitchen philosophy made my mother's cooking look like something that even Betty Crocker wouldn't have winced at. But always, always, love. That seems to be Ruth's true theme throughout her books. How can I resist that?
Another book that I read this year is by writer Bill Buford. I read a book several years ago that Mr. Buford had written about football (Soccer to we Yanks) hooligans entitled Among the Thugs. Our library doesn't carry this book. But it's rather horrific details would put off most of the patrons anyway. I digress! The book I'm actually going to mention here is Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as a Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany. Look's as if the title says it all, right? Not quite. Not only is this book about Mr. Buford's culinary adventures it's also a bit of a biography of celebrity chef Mario Batali. If you didn't like Chef Batali before, chances are, you won't much care for him after reading this book. Buford isn't out to get Batali by any means, it's just that Batali doesn't exactly do anything to endear himself to the reader. My favorite paragragh in the entire book is one in which chef Marco Pierre White describes what Batali was like back in the days when he worked under White. Marco's never been one to whitewash anything and he certainly didn't bother to do it when speaking of Batali. Another part of the book that I got a kick out of is when Buford starts to obsess over when it was decided to add eggs to the recipe for pasta. He made my list obsession seem almost quaint by comparison. You can find the New York Times Book Review for Heat here.
A couple of novels with food as a central focus are both by Marsha Mehran. Pomegranate Soup and Rose Water and Soda Bread both center around three sisters who have moved from post-Revolution Iran to a small Irish village and open a restaurant. If you wish to learn more about Ms. Mehran and her work, her official website can be found here. I may add that these two books make for perfect Summer reading.
So as you can see, I do have a slight food obsession. Can you blame me? But isn't it wonderful when both food and books combine?

And finally, a non-food related item. I've listed Q Music Magazine among my links. It's by far my favorite music magazine. One of my favorite sections is a monthly column entitled "Apocalypse Jukebox". Basically, musicians are told that the end is nigh' and are asked what would be the last 10 or so songs they'd want to hear before the end.They always come up with some interesting choices, not what you'd expect. Music is universal and individual at the same time. Which is why it's somewhat of a religion unto itself. And it's definately the most healing of art forms. I've had an ongoing Apocalypse Jukebox list (Are you surprised?) and I thought. "Why not share songs from my list?". So I'm going at random. My first choice is a recent song by one of my favorite bands, Pearl Jam. So I've chosen Just Breathe. I hope that you enjoy this dear song as much as I have.
Until next time!

Friday, July 23, 2010

A long P.S.

As I mentioned in my very first post, the pont of this blog was to annotate magazine articles. Part of my problem is that I can be a wee slow at learning anything technical. So now I'm finding myself one step closer. An to prove it, I'm doing this test run.
I recently mentioned to our library director Sid that there's a book out this Summer that I'm mighty interested in, and here it is!
Yay! I did it!

J...is for John

In Book Lust, Nancy Pearl (The most awesome librarian ever) has a section entitled "A is for Alice". Nancy points out how there are so many wonderful authors named Alice (Walker, Munro, Elliot, to name a few). Recently I read the biography Cheever: A Life by Blake Bailey and thought of Ms. Pearl's take on the Alice factor and thought how there are so many wonderful authors named John. Granted, John is a common enough name. However, there's an uncommonly high amount of authors named John. Obviously, the gifted yet tormented Mr. Cheever. Also, Updike, Irving, Marquand, and my favorite, Steinbeck are just a handful of John's that deserve a hats off. So when you're unsure of just what to read next, you may want to consider one of these fellows named John.








Mr. Updike, I had a crush on him. It's true!

And if you're interested in Nancy Pearl, go here... http://www.nancypearl.com/